User appears in user profile and not in SharePoint people picker

For some strange reason a users profile appears in the profile directory

however is not available in the people picker:

Sometimes it seems as though the database will not update or sync back the user profiles through the execution timer job – it might be that the site collection is not in sync with the user profiles – you can check this by running this command :

stsadm -o sync -listolddatabases 1

If something is picked up use the following command can be used to resynchronize the databases at the next timer job run:

stsadm -o sync -deleteolddatabases 1

It doesn’t actually delete the db but just resets a field forcing a resynchronization at the next timer job run – check the link for more info on the command:

Even though this is more of a workaround it allowed me to add the necessary user to the environment /web application for display purposes – however when combined with the initial adduser solution that is specified (setproperty) is a possible permanent solution and should have you up and running with the required missing user.